Trustee of Colwyn Bay Charity gets Victimized with Scam E-Mail

Trustee Sue Scott associated with the charitable organization Dan Den in Colwyn Bay, Conwy, UK is the most recent individual to be victimized with a phishing scam involving a "begging letter," published Dailypost.co.uk dated October 22, 2011.

Actually, the e-mail account of Scott was hacked following which the perpetrator dispatched a bogus electronic mail to all the addresses on her contact list saying that the writer, meaning Scott, truly hoped the reader receives the message fast and that she couldn't tell anybody of her tour as it was unplanned.

Scott apparently continues that she had to go to Madrid, Spain to attend a program. Sadly, muggers robbed her in the hotel's premises she was staying in. Her money-bag had all her precious things. Presently, her passport is with the hotel manager till she clears all the payments due of her. That's why she requires a 2,650 Euro loan from the e-mail recipient so that she can pay her hotel charges as also return home. She'll be truly grateful if the recipient can help her with whatever sum possible through Western Union that she promises to pay back immediately on return, Sue seems to conclude.

Unfortunately, according to the security researchers, the scam that struck Scott is called the "stranded traveler's scam," one kind of the "Nigerian 419 scam" or "advance fee fraud."

In this, a hacker compromises the password of the victimized individual's e-mail thereby gaining access to the latter's web-oriented electronic mail account through which the miscreant then dispatches a message to all the addresses within the compromised account's contact list. The message implores for assistance like in the aforementioned case, and since its sender is a friend, there's always a possibility that one compassionate individual, somewhere, will reply back assuring of the help requested, researchers remark.

The researchers add that if anyone gets an e-mail, which seems as being from a friend alternatively relative asserting that he/she's in trouble, that recipient must examine the e-mail's writing style. He should ask himself if the e-mail is typical of the person sending it, then contact that person straight away, say over phone.